Jazz this week: The Wee Trio, Take 6, J.D. Parran & George Sams, Scott Kirby, Charlie Hunter & Scott Amendola, and more

With spring appearing finally to have sprung here in St. Louis, it should be a fine weekend to get out and hear some live jazz and creative music, and fortunately, our local stages will be filled with intriguing possibilities. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, Good 4 The Soul plays their monthly gig at  BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups; Washington University's jazz studies students will perform a free concert to wrap up this semester's Jazz at Holmes series; the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center has a four-band bill topped by the Brazilian "punk rock with a bit of jazzy influence" band Lisabi; and the Gaslight Cabaret Festival continues with actress/singer Taylor Pietz performing her show "If I Only Had a Brain" at the Gaslight Theater.

Tomorrow night, The Wee Trio, featuring St. Louis native Dan Loomis on bass, returns to Jazz at the Bistro for the first of two nights officially celebrating the live album the group recorded there last year. For more about that, check this interview with Loomis from earlier this year on AllAboutJazz.com, and for some video samples of the Wee Trio in action, see this post from before their visit here last January.

Elsewhere around town, if you were hoping to see singer Storm Large's performance this weekend for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival but don't yet have tickets, you're out of luck, as both nights are sold out. Meanwhile, some spots may remain for the performance by vocal group Take 6 at Washington University Black Alumni Council's 30th anniversary dinner and concert in the Khorassan Ballroom of the Chase Park Plaza Hotel; click the "30th anniversary" link above for details.

There also should be some tickets remaining for MADCO's presentation of "Liquid Roads" at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. The modern dance company's latest and largest-ever production will be accompanied by a four-piece live band led by trumpeter Brian Casserly of Cornet Chop Suey, performing original songs and a variety of jazz, blues and gospel favorites. You can see a brief video about the show here, and read a preview story written by Terry Perkins for St. Louis Public Radio here.

And if all that's not enough for one night, there's also singer Joe Mancuso leading a trio at EdgeWild Restaurant & Winery; the St. Louis Big Band at the Casa Loma Ballroom; pianist Carolbeth True and  Two Times True at Robbie's House of Jazz; and the Charlie B Jazz'd Trio at Thurman Grill.

On Saturday, the sounds at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site will range from free improv to ragtime, as the venue hosts two concerts in one day. First up, multi-instrumentalist J.D. Parran returns home to team up with trumpeter George Sams for a matinee that serves as the spring finale for the Nu-Art Series, and then pianist Scott Kirby will take over for an early evening concert presented by the Friends of Scott Joplin.

Also on Saturday, Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center continues their "Quiet Concert Series" with more new compositions from Mark Sarich and Greg Farough, as Farough continues his focus on "pure waveforms which interact with the natural resonance of rooms to form and slowly transform complex sonic relationships," while Sarich will present a new work utilizing the Schumann Resonance and text of a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke.

Elsewhere on Saturday, pianist Pauline Stark, saxophonist Willie Akins and singer Cici Ranek will perform in the old "Just Jazz" space at the Omni Majestic Hotel; guitarist Dave Black and singer Feyza Eren will play at Pomme Café & Wine Bar; the Jim Widner Trio with Jim Manley and Randy Bahr holds forth at the Fox & Hounds Tavern at the Cheshire Inn; and singer Sarah Jane of the Blue Notes, pianist Tim Garcia and saxophonist Jerry Greene are at Robbie's House of Jazz.

On Sunday, Miss Jubilee begins what's projected to be a weekly jazz brunch at Evangeline's; and the "Inner Jazz" series at Kirkwood United Church of Christ continues with a free concert from guitarist Rick Haydon's quartet. StLJN also recently has learned that Freddie Washington is now leading a quartet in a weekly Sunday late afternoon session at Toast Time, 12781 New Halls Ferry Rd in Florissant, and no doubt the veteran saxophonist's many fans will welcome the opportunity to hear him regularly for as long as the gig continue. 

But the biggest names on Sunday arrive that evening, as guitarist Charlie Hunter and drummer Scott Amendola will be in town to perform a duo show at the Old Rock House. The two last fall released their second album together, Pucker, which focuses mostly on Amendola's compositions. But given Hunter's near-one-man-band capabilities and the inherent flexibility of the duo format, they certainly won't be limited to material from the recording. You can read a review of Pucker and hear a sample track here, and read an interview with Amendola from Modern Drummer magazine, in which he discusses his partnership with Hunter, here.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the Sessions Big Band returns to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups. Then on Tuesday, Lindy Hop St. Louis's weekly swing dance at the Grandel Theatre will feature live music from Philadelphia's' Perseverance Jazz Band; and Common Time and Jesse Gannon & Truth will perform on a double-bill at Plush.

For more jazz-related events in and around St. Louis, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which can be found on the left sidebar of the site or by clicking here. You also can keep up with all the latest news by following St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes or clicking the "Like" icon on the StLJN Facebook page.

(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)


(Edited after posting to add the venue name for the "Quiet Concert" series.)

Jazz Edge Big Band's "Tribute to St. Louis Trumpeters" to feature Russell Gunn, Keyon Harrold and Danny Mixon

St. Louis' Jazz Edge Big Band will enlist expat trumpeters Russell Gunn and Keyon Harrold and veteran NYC pianist and organist Danny Mixon in a "Tribute to St. Louis Trumpeters" at 7:00 p.m., Friday, May 30 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

"Miles Davis, Clark Terry, George Hudson, Lester Bowie and W.C. Handy are among the revered horn legends who will be remembered," according to the news release.

While both Gunn and Harrold have developed successful solo careers and have performed in St. Louis numerous times since moving away, this show seems to be the first ever to team them up as headliners. Gunn, who grew up in East St. Louis, attended Lincoln HS and now lives in Atlanta, has been recording and playing recently with singer Dionne Farris, while Harrold, an alumni of McCluer HS in Florissant, has continued to work steadily as part of the band for Cirque du Soleil's "Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour" tribute show.

Local audiences may not be as familiar with Mixon, but he's an in-demand player in NYC and surroundings who's been on the scene long enough to have played with jazz luminaries including Betty Carter, Charles Mingus, Joe Williams, Lionel Hampton, and Frank Foster, as well as a long list of currently active performers.

The Jazz Edge Big Band (pictured) is directed by Thomas Moore, who co-founded the group with George Davis and Robert Edwards.

Tickets for the Jazz Edge Big Band's "Tributes to St. Louis Trumpeters" with Russell Gunn, Keyon Harrold and Danny Mixon are $28 each and can be purchased at the Touhill box office, by phone at 314-516-4949, or online at the Touhill website.

(Edited after posting.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Six from Poncho Sanchez

Today, let's check out some videos of percussionist Poncho Sanchez, who will be bringing his band to St. Louis to perform Wednesday, April 16 through Saturday, April 19 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Last seen here in 2012 at the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, Sanchez and his band could be considered the standard-bearers for small-group, mainstream Latin jazz. Though the personnel has changed over the years, the group's instrumentation - three percussionists, bass, keyboards, and a three- or four-member horn section - and their basic approach and sound have remained remarkably consistent.

Sanchez, who's now 63, was born the son of Mexican immigrants in Texas and raised in California. At first a guitarist and singer, he switched to the conga drums while in high school and got his big break in his early twenties with vibraphonist Cal Tjader, staying with Tjader's band for nearly seven years.

Before his death in 1982, Tjader urged his label Concord Records to sign Sanchez as a solo act. They did, simultaneously helping to launch his career as a bandleader, and Sanchez went on to release 19 albums for the label, including in 1999 the Grammy Award-winning Latin Soul. Since moving to the Universal label shortly after that, Sanchez has released a dozen more albums, the most recent being 2012's Live in Hollywood.

Given that Sanchez has performed here in St. Louis several times in the last few years, today's selection of clips concentrates on material that's just come online in the last 12 months, although at least a couple of the videos are from a while back.

First up, though, is a relatively recent selection, an audience-made video of Sanchez and band playing "El Conguero" last July at the Laguna Beach Festival of the Arts in California. While it takes a minute for the music to start, and the camera work is a bit uneven in spots, the audio is quite nice, and it's a good example of how Sanchez uses what amounts to a personal theme song ("Yo soy el conguero") to kick off and establish a tone for his set.

Down below, you can see Sanchez and band perform "Ven Pa Bailar" in March, 2012 at the Jakarta International Java Jazz Festival, and below that, there are a couple of undated clips recorded at B.B. King's in NYC. The first features the tune "Keeper of the Flame," while the second is a medley of songs associated with the famed Latin-jazz percussionist Willie Bobo.

The fifth clip, labeled simply "Descarga," is from an undated TV appearance and features tasty solos from Sanchez and former pianist/music director David Torres.

And in the sixth and final spot, there's a complete show from 1991, apparently released on home video as "A Night at Kimball's East." While the band's personnel and the song list certainly have changed, Sanchez' musical consistency means that what you see and hear in this show isn't all that different that what you likely can expect to hear at the Bistro later this month.

For more about Poncho Sanchez, check out this older interview with JustSalsa.com; this conversation with LatinJazzNet.com from 2010; and the podcast interview Sanchez recorded for Jazz St. Louis before appearing at the Bistro in 2008.

You can see and hear the rest of today's videos after the jump...

The New Mastersounds to perform Friday, June 6 at Old Rock House

The British funk/jazz group The New Mastersounds are coming to St. Louis to perform at 9:30 p.m., Friday, June 6 at the Old Rock House.

Doors for the 18+ show will open at 8:30 p.m., with the genre-hopping quartet Dopapod serving as the supporting act.

Led by guitarist Eddie Roberts, The New Mastersounds (pictured) were formed in 1999 in Leeds, and currently include Roberts and fellow founding members Simon Allen (drums) and Pete Shand (bass), plus keyboardist Joe Totten, who joined in 2007. While their sound owes an obvious debt to the Meters, they incorporate a number of other influences as well, with some tracks evoking vibes similar to fellow UK funksters Brian Auger or the Average White Band.

The New Mastersounds have released a dozen albums on their own, and also have collaborated with other artists in the UK and USA on various singles and one-offs. They've toured extensively in Europe and Asia and here in the USA, playing clubs, small theaters, and festivals and opening larger gigs for the likes of the Headhunters and the Greyboy All-Stars. 

Tickets for The New Mastersounds at Old Rock House are $17 in advance, $20 day of show, and are on sale now.

"Mistaken identity" causes confusion for Casa Loma Ballroom

The recent news of the collapse of the long-abandoned Castle Ballroom in Midtown is causing unexpected repercussions for another St. Louis music venue on the south side.

According to a news release sent out this week by the proprietors of St. Louis' historic Casa Loma Ballroom (pictured), some current patrons and potential customers of Casa Loma have heard the news reports about the Castle Ballroom and gotten confused about the fates of the two ballrooms both beginning with the letter "C".

Casa Loma boss Patrick Brannon says call volume to his offices has more than doubled, with callers asking about ticket refunds and where events will be moved, and attendance at recent events has dropped. As a result, the venerable venue has been forced to publicly refute mistaken reports of its demise.

“We’re still in business. We’re still here. We’re not going anywhere. The Casa Loma is alive, well and open for business. We’re not slated for demolition. We’re thrilled to be a part of the resurgent Cherokee Street Business District,” explained Brannon.

You can see a complete schedule of upcoming events at http://www.casalomaballroom.com/, and read the complete text of the news release after the jump...

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

Here's the latest wrap-up of assorted links and short local news items of interest:

* Drummer and St. Louis native Mark Colenburg, currently working with pianist Robert Glasper, is featured in the current issue of Yamaha's promotional magazine All Access.

* Saxophonist David Sanborn's next album Enjoy The View, a collaborative effort with mallet percussionist Bobby Hutcherson, organist Joey DeFrancesco, and drummer Billy Hart is coming out Tuesday, June 24 on Blue Note Records. The album marks Hutcherson's return to the label for which he did some of his most widely recognized recordings in the 1960s and 70s.

* Pianist Peter Martin will travel next week to NYC's Jazz at Lincoln Center to lead a restaging of The Real Ambassadors, the musical that was created in 1961 by Dave Brubeck and Louis Armstrong to spread American culture around the world.

The work was recorded for Columbia in 1961, but was performed live only once, at the 1962 Monterey Jazz Festival. Other participants in the revival will include bassist Robert Hurst, drummer Ulysses Owens, vocalist Roberta Gambarini and trumpeter James Zollar, plus Yolande Bavan, who took part in the 1962 performance, as the narrator.

* Saxophonist and jazz educator Ronald Carter (pictured), who trained many local musicians while he was band director at East St. Louis' Lincoln HS, is retiring this spring from his job as head of jazz studies at Northern Illinois University. A concert paying tribute to Carter will take place next Thursday, April 10, in the Duke Ellington Ballroom of the Holmes Student Center on the NIU campus.

* Pianist Stephanie Trick's performance last month for the Roosmoor Jazz Club in Walnut Creek, CA was captured on video and is featured on the blog Jazz Lives.

* New music ensemble Alarm Will Sound has posted to their Facebook page an album of photos from their performance Tuesday at the Pageant

* Saxophonist Oliver Lake is set to take part in a tribute to Eric Dolphy next month in Montclair, NJ that will feature some Dolphy compositions never before recorded or performed in public. Drummer Pheeroan akLaff is organizing the show, which also will include luminaries such as Richard Davis, Gunther Schuller, Don Byron, Vernon Reid, and Henry Threadgill, and is raising funds via a page on IndieGoGo.

* Speaking of fundraisers, trumpeter Terence Blanchard still has a long way to go in his effort to gather $140,000 to record Champion, his "opera in jazz" that premiered last summer at Opera Theatre St. Louis. With 19 days to go, the project's IndieGoGo page puts the contributions to date at $13,035.

Coincidentally, Blanchard this past week also was involved in paying tribute to the St. Louis area's most famous jazz musician, performing the music of Miles Davis and Gil Evans in a concert at the University of Miami.

* And speaking of Davis, reviews are coming in for the new box set of material he recorded at the Fillmore from publications ranging from the New York Times to the San Antonio Current, to online outlets including
PopMatters, Pitchfork, The Arts Desk, and AllAbout Jazz.com.

* Congratulations to Jon Poses of the "We Always Swing" jazz series in Columbia, who was named one of 24 local "Jazz Heroes" for 2014 by the Jazz Journalists Association.

* Vintage Vinyl marketing manager Jim Utz was profiled in an article this week's St. Louis Business Journal, though alas, the full text is for subscribers only.

* St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts will present their next "Business Edge" workshop on Monday, April 7 at the Regional Arts Commission offices on Delmar. Titled "Square Feet," the session will provide information on real estate contracts aimed at artists contemplating leasing living or working space. The cost is $10 per person in advance, and you can register by sending an email to vlaa at stlrac dot org.

* Jazz radio update: On this Saturday's edition of Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis' "Somethin' Else," host Calvin Wilson will showcase "new standards" from current popular artists from OutKast to Oasis as performed by musicians including trumpeter Wallace Roney, singer-pianist Patricia Barber, and bassist Ben Allison.

After that, The Jazz Collective's host Jason Church will celebrate the program's one-year anniversary with a re-broadcast of his very first episode, featuring music from Chris Standring, Bob James, Ronny Jordan, Tia Fuller, Miles Davis, Ben Williams, Funky Butt Brass Band, Tommy Halloran, Dawn Weber, and Robert Silverman.

Wilson's program airs at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays, followed by Church at 9:00 p.m., on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

Jazz this week: Cyrus Chestnut & Russell Malone, Claire Chase & ICE, St. Louis Stompers, and more

This week's jam-packed calendar of jazz and creative music in St. Louis offers something for listeners of just about any stylistic preference, from ragtime and traditional New Orleans style to straight-ahead modern jazz to free improvisation and contemporary chamber music. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, pianist Cyrus Chestnut and his trio will team up with guitarist Russell Malone for the first of four nights at Jazz at the Bistro. Revisiting an alliance forged a couple of years ago at the Bistro, Chestnut and Malone both are technically accomplished musicians who also swing hard and usually manage to incorporate elements of blues and/or gospel into their playing. For some video samples and interviews with both men, see this post from last Saturday.

Tomorrow night, Claire Chase - flute player, founder of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" - will give a talk and take questions in an early evening event presented by New Music Circle at the Regional Arts Commission, 6128 Delmar Blvd.

Chase (pictured) and ICE then will perform in an NMC-sponsored concert on Friday at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. For more about her and ICE, see this video showcase post from a couple of weeks ago. 

After Chase's talk, you should be able to get to the Washington University campus in time to hear trumpeter Anthony Wiggins lead a quartet in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series entitled "Mandela: Improvisation & The Music of Social Justice."

Also tomorrow night, the Gaslight Cabaret Festival resumes with Morgan A. Faulkner performing her show "I Got It All From My Mother" at the Gaslight Theater; and guitarist Dave Black and singer Feyza Eren will play at Nathalie's.

On Friday, after the Claire Chase and ICE concert, cornetist Rob Mazurek of the Chicago Underground Duo/Trio/Quartet and/or Orchestra will join bassist Darin Gray for a late set of improvised music at the Tavern of Fine Arts.

Also on Friday: For those in the mood to hear a vocalist, Katie McGrath will be performing her show "Love in the Desert: Romance in an Age of Scarcity" for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival; Tony Viviano will return to Talayna's of Chesterfield; and Wendy Gordon will be back at DeLeo's Cafe & Deli.

Meanwhile, swing dancers can check out Miss Jubilee at Lindy Hop St. Louis' monthly "West End Stomp" at the Mahler Ballroom, or the Knights of Swing at Casa Loma Ballroom, while those looking for some straight-ahead jazz may enjoy saxophonist Kendrick Smith's trio at Cigar Inn or pianist Brad Ellebrecht "Little Quartet" at Robbie's House of Jazz.

On Saturday evening, trumpeter Scott Vignassi's big band will perform at Robbie's; the Coleman Hughes Project will play smooth jazz and R&B at Troy's Jazz Gallery; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will swing the Venice Cafe; and the Funky Butt Brass Band returns to the Broadway Oyster Bar.

Sunday afternoon potentially has a bit of a throwback feel, as the Metro South Arts Council will showcase the young winners of their 14th Annual Scott Joplin Ragtime Competition in a performance at Robbie's House of Jazz, while the St. Louis Jazz Club will present the traditional jazz sound of the St. Louis Stompers at the Doubletree Hotel in Westport.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday pianist Jim Hegarty and bassist Paul Steinbeck will play improvised music at the Tavern of Fine Arts; Webster University's student jazz combos will give a free performance at the Community Music School on the Webster campus; and guitarist Tom Byrne plays at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

For more jazz-related events in and around St. Louis, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which can be found on the left sidebar of the site or by clicking here. You also can keep up with all the latest news by following St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes or clicking the "Like" icon on the StLJN Facebook page.

(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)

MADCO's "Liquid Roads" to mix live jazz, modern dance on April 11 & 12 at the Touhill

The St. Louis modern dance company MADCO will perform to live music under the direction of trumpeter Brian Casserly during their new show "Liquid Roads," which premieres at 8:00 p.m. Friday, April 11 and Saturday, April 12 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center's Anheuser-Busch Performance Hall.

Called MADCO's "grandest production to date," the performance created and choreographed by Gina Patterson "celebrates St. Louis in a lively look at the music and dance of the city’s rich history and culture."

“Live music is an intrinsic part of 'Liquid Roads,'” said MADCO executive director Stacy West. “It’s not just the beat the dancers keep time to...it’s the inspiration, the storyline, the heart.” The group hopes to take "Liquid Roads" on tour, West said, and earlier this year raised $15,000 via Kickstarter to help mount the production. You can see a short video about the show that was used in the fund-raising campaign here.

The 90-minute production features a four-piece live band led by Casserly, a former member of the Soulard Blues Band perhaps best known these days for his work with the trad jazz and swing group Cornet Chop Suey.

They'll play seven original tunes written by Casserly and a variety of covers, including contemporary songs such as "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Louisiana 1927," as well as older tunes like "What A Wonderful World," "St. James Infirmary," "Wang Dang Doodle," and "Jumpin' With Symphony Sid"; Raymond Scott's cartoon perennial "Powerhouse"; and the gospel standards "Wasn't That A Mystery" and "Down to the River to Pray."

Starting at 7:00 p.m. before each performance, the Sidney Street Shakers will play live music in the Touhill lobby while local swing dancers demonstrate their skills. Tickets for MADCO's "Liquid Roads" are $30 and are on sale now at the Touhill ticket office, online at http://www.touhill.org/, or by phone at 314-516-4949.